So I am back....
I have been in China for the past 10 days on a Cultrual and Creativity exchange with the British Council hosted by the All China Youth Federation. The experience was intence, profound and challenged me and my leadership in many ways. Over the next few weeks I will be refelcting on these experiences in order to make sense of some of the creative and cultural differences between China and the UK.
I am now needing to deal with my jet lag!
Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale, using audience participation, at the event "Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus", from the 2009 World Science Festival, June 12, 2009.
For more of Bobby McFerrin and the science behind this program, please view the full "Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus" event video at our website:
worldsciencefestival.com/video/notes-neurons-full
For all those Cultural Leaders out there...
The Cultural Leadership Programme (CLP) is a Government funded investment in excellence in leadership across the creative and cultural industries. By supporting an ambitious range of activities and opportunities, the programme aims to nurture and develop world class, dynamic and diverse leaders for the 21st Century.
Website: http://www.culturalleadership.org.uk
"The essential part of creativity is not being afraid to fail."
Edwin H. Land
I used to be petrified of failure. I thought that it would expose me as being a fraud or show that I bad at what I did.
Reflecting on this I now think that this was a load of rubbish!
How would I have learnt anything if I had not failed or got things wrong? It is intrinsic in human evolution that we make mistakes and then learn from them. However, I was always afraid of failure as it was drilled into me at school that failure was bad; you would be doomed, jobless, homeless, unhappy and lonely. Ok maybe a bit dramatic but being at school I vividly perceived that if I failed GCSE's then I would not get a job; if I failed A-Levels then I would not go to University.... and it goes on. I now know this was rubbish and had nothing to do with me but the schools league tables...I digress.
In the rehearsal room it is intrinsic that I make sure that my actors feel comfortable enough to get things wrong; if I didn't then my shows would become stale, boring and uncreative. A rehearsal is just that; we rehearse, we repeat, get things wrong and try new ways of working until we can make a show as well presented as possible.
In the real world and outside the rehearsal room is different; we don't always have the safe space to fail. We don't always have the chance to go back and change a line we just said; there is no script or stage directions.
So, as leaders how can we fail successfully? How can we create a rehearsal room environment to cushion the blow of failure and learn from it?
Ultimately, if we don't have that safe space to fail then we will never take risks and things would never change...
I just wish I had found this out when I was at school!
“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right”
Henry Ford
A strange thing happened to me when I started the Common Purpose International Navigator Emerging Leadership Programme; I became a leader! Now this sounds obvious and a bit strange but I have a strong belief that as soon as you start calling yourself a leader then you become a leader.
I talk to young people a lot about belief; generally if they believe they are trouble makers or they can’t succeed then generally that is what happens – that are trouble makers who don’t succeed. However, a powerful change occurs as soon as they start to think that they can achieve anything – they start to achieve! Belief is a powerful force.
Now, I am not in the realm of following self help books or their philosophy but in my experience as soon as you start talking about yourself as a leader and believe that you are a leader then you get identified as a leader and start leading.
So is belief the start?
"I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers."
Ralph Nader
To begin with cultural leaders are Reflective: What distinguishes them is genuine humility and not being afraid to show vulnerability on occasions. This comes from regular periods of reflection and an unquenchable thirst for learning.
Courageous & creative risk takers: They have a marked tendency to ‘bend the rules’, take risks, and, on occasions, be guided by their gut-feelings. They also encourage this in other people, recognising that a certain amount of flexibility is essential to adapt to circumstances and make real strides forward.
Accessible: They make time to get out and speak to people. This informal and personal contact is a very powerful motivator.
They also encourage entrepreneurial creativity and experimentation in the work they do. They involve everyone, empower and trust the communities they work in, build teams and leverage diversity.
They are passionate and draw people into thier world and vision; building coalitions as they go.
Fundamentally they motivate, inspire and cultivate new cultural leaders.
I have been given an amazing opportunity and I am so excited; I am off to Shanghai in a few weeks. This trip, consisting of 100 Cultural and Creative leaders was part of an exchange programme of 400 British and 400 Chinese young people (!), supported by Prime Ministers of both countries.
The UK-China 400 programme looks to inspire and motivate people in China and the UK to develop themselves as global citizens; who are potentially mobile, and may aspire to international education and employment; who are interested in and understand other cultures; and who engage in debate and collaborate with others locally and internationally on key issues facing the world.
The programmes Key Objectives are;
- to broaden the international perspective of young leaders
- to change perceptions of young people in both countries
- to develop existing and new community links between the two countries
- to meet the personal and professional objectives of the individual participants
I don’t know too much about the programme yet but I will be using this blog to reflect on my experiences.
This is going to be amazing…
Links:
I recently had the opportunity to give some honest feedback to a cultural leader and I bottled it.I was part of a group who were exploring change within an arts organisation who had opened their doors to us to allow us to share and reflect on a challenge they were facing. Throughout the process we became aware that the cultural leader who was sharing the challenge was part of the problem. She would not enter into a dialogue with us about our reflections and it became apparent that her leadership should have been brought into question. The group and I however did not step up and challenge this. We sat in a place of abstract reflection and did not go to the heart of what we really wanted to say, which was "Where is your leadership in all of this?". If we had had the courage to ask those difficult questions then possibly the cultural leader would have gained more insight into her leadership and the impact that was having on the organisation.
So what is the solution. Courage! To have the courage to step up in those moments and lead, give feedback, reflect, say the thing everyone's thinking... I always say to actors that if they don't have butterflies before going on stage then I am worried. As leaders we should have more pre-show nerves; it tells us we are learning, having impact and stepping up to a challenge.
My moment came and went with that particular cultural leader and it left me feeling very frustrated. It, however, has taught me to seize the moment and have the courage to step up.
A large serving of pre-show butterflies please!
"If theatre fails to react rapidly to current events, whether it be the Middle East crisis or the global financial meltdown, it will be reduced to the role of an impotent bystander."
Michael Billington
Michael Billington
I came across this video that looks at how some design students from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) simply define leadership as "people that bring people together"...
RISD Website
Creative Leaders at RISD from John Maeda on Vimeo.
RISD Website
I took the Belbin Team Roles assessment the other week. For those who are not familiar with the assessment Belbin suggests that, by understanding your team role within a particular team, you can develop your strengths and manage your weaknesses as a team member, and so improve how you contribute to the team.
The Pla
nt is the creative innovator who comes up with new ideas and approaches. The plant is a specialist idea maker characterised by high IQ and introversion while also being dominant and original. The plant tends to take radical approaches to team functioning and problems. Plants are more concerned with major issues than with details.
I am not sure what I am going to do with this information at the moment. My boss used a great analogy about really enjoying reading horoscopes but taking it with a pinch of salt and using it as a talking point rather than a something to rule your life by.
Team leaders and team development practitioners often use the Belbin model to help create more balanced teams. Teams can become unbalanced if all team members have similar styles of behavior or team roles.
If team members have similar weakness, the team as a whole may tend to have that weakness. If team members have similar team-work strengths, they may tend to compete (rather than co-operate) for the team tasks and responsibilities that best suit their natural styles. So you can use the model with your team to help ensure that necessary team roles are covered, and that potential behavioral tensions or weaknesses among the team member are addressed.
So I went through the assessment and I came out as a Plant! So to give you an idea of my what my 'default' behaviour is I have described it below...
The Pla
nt is the creative innovator who comes up with new ideas and approaches. The plant is a specialist idea maker characterised by high IQ and introversion while also being dominant and original. The plant tends to take radical approaches to team functioning and problems. Plants are more concerned with major issues than with details.I am not sure what I am going to do with this information at the moment. My boss used a great analogy about really enjoying reading horoscopes but taking it with a pinch of salt and using it as a talking point rather than a something to rule your life by.
"Do you want a collection of brilliant minds or a brilliant collection of minds?"
Further Reading:
Official Belbin Website
Official Belbin Website
This quote resonates with me at the moment...
"Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better."
King Whitney Jr
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